Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) - Equities research analysts at William Blair upped their Q2 2025 earnings per share estimates for Accenture in a report issued on Thursday, December 19th. William Blair analyst M. Nolan now anticipates that the information technology services provider will post earnings of $2.89 per share for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $2.86. The consensus estimate for Accenture's current full-year earnings is $12.74 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Accenture's Q1 2026 earnings at $3.52 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $3.07 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $3.54 EPS and Q4 2026 earnings at $3.29 EPS.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis.
A number of other research firms have also issued reports on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $383.23.
Read Our Latest Report on ACN
Shares of ACN stock opened at $366.37 on Monday. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $360.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $337.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.04 billion, a PE ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.
A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the second quarter worth $28,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 607.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.
In other news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,136 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.07, for a total transaction of $2,945,801.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,188 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,412,909.16. This represents a 40.03 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Accenture announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.66%.
Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.
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